Super Bowl commercials: poignant, pointed and funny

Last night’s Super Bowl commercials were at their best when they were told simple stories which were well executed. These included serious pro-diversity messages from companies like AirBnB, Budweiser, 84 Lumber and Michelin and funny ads from It’s a 10 Haircare, Mr. Clean and Kia.

My two favorites overall were from AirBnB, which just showed faces of people from all backgrounds with a positive message of inclusion, and It’s a 10 Haircare, which used the new administration as a warning for Americans to do their part to have good hair. Other standouts included Mr. Clean as a sexy male maid, Melissa McCarthy for Kia (she really won this weekend) and Honda’s cute yearbook ad featuring actual school photos of celebrities giving advice.

The worst commercials were from the mobile phone companies. T-Mobile had several very cringe-inducing ads encouraging us to dance with Bieber and riffing on 50 Shades. Sprint had a dad faking his own death, which – how does that get greenlighted by teams of people? It makes me think that a bunch of yes-people are in charge at Sprint. Here are some of my favorites and the list at the end has most of the others.